Aphelion
by sapphireswimming
Summary: The night is darkest just before the dawn. But what do you do when even the stars let you down?


**This takes place either before or ignoring the events in Phantom Planet. Also, pretend that the show took place several years later so that the trio is still in high school on Monday, July 21, 2011.**

 **Also why does the biggest phandom event of the year have to start when I'm pulling triple shifts at work? Ugh. At least inspiration comes whenever you're too busy to write, right? But then hacking these out becomes... tricky. Anyway, this is for Phanniemay15's second prompt: "Dreams"**

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 **Aphelion**

 _n; the point in the orbit of a planet, asteroid, or comet at which it is farthest from the Sun._

May 5, 2015

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Alternately titled: **Houston, you are my Problem**

or: **Stand by, 13**

or even: **Okay, Houston**

Because I am indecisive and like them all.

* * *

Tucker texted Danny as soon as he heard the news announced on the radio, but Danny wasn't answering. He logged into D00M in case Danny was trying to marathon away his woes, but no such luck.

With a sigh, Tucker pushed up from his multiple-monitored desk and started walking to FentonWorks.

He greeted Mrs. F's grateful surprise with a forced smile. "He's up in his room," she said, and he nodded, walking the familiar route with deliberately slow steps.

He stood outside the door for a while, unsure of what to do. If Danny wasn't answering his texts, maybe it meant that he needed his space and barging in now would be the last thing he wanted. But, then again, he was already here. And it probably wouldn't hurt too much to at least try.

Tucker knocked on the door.

A rough voice on the other side of the door said, "Go away, Jazz, I'm not in the mood," like it was the fifth time he'd had to say it that afternoon. Which, given the kind of girl his sister was, was not surprising.

Tucker grinned and cracked the door open just wide enough to poke his face through. "Dude, never thought I'd ever get confused with your sister."

Danny started and turned around, quickly smoothing the sheets crumpled next to him. "Oh, uh, sorry, Tuck," he apologized, eyes skittering away from the door.

Tucker's smile faded and he asked quietly, "It okay if I come in?"

There was a beat before Danny answered, "Yeah, um, I guess so."

"Cool, cool," Tucker nodded as he closed the door behind him and sat down on the swiveling chair at the desk. He eyed the debris littered around the room but didn't comment because there was not-cleaning-up-because-I've-pulled-five-ghost-fighting-all-nighters-straight and there was deliberately trashing the place.

Instead, he casually swung his feet up on the desk and pulled a PDA out of one of his many pockets. He started tapping the screen with his stylus and pretended like he didn't see Danny fidgeting on the bed or toeing a model spaceship underneath his bed.

Danny seemed to deflate after a couple minutes of easy silence, but Tucker's presence still had him on edge, just waiting for the long speech.

His shoulders tensed as Tucker took a deep breath, but he just quirked his mouth and drawled, "So. I'm guessing you'd say no to a game of laser tag, huh?"

The question caught Danny off-guard, but he nodded slowly.

"Or a trip to the Observatory."

"It's the middle of the day, Tucker," Danny said, frowning as he understood where Tucker was going.

"Aaaand a marathon of Space Blasters?" Tucker couldn't help but adding.

He got a glare for that one.

"Sorry, stupid question," Tucker said, twirling the stylus absently between his fingers. "Hey man, you wanna... wanna talk about it?" he offered hesitantly.

Danny shook his head, eyes fixed firmly on the galaxy print of his sheets. He rubbed his face. "No, not really," he finally sighed.

Tucker nodded, wishing he knew what to say. How to get rid of that catch in his best friend's voice. It hadn't even really been a possibility, not for years, but the announcement had still come as a shock. To everyone. And it was hard to finally give up on your dreams.

He hadn't been surprised at all to find Danny barricaded in his room.

They sat in silence for a bit.

"You know..." Tucker began softly, like stepping on eggshells wouldn't matter if he did it quietly enough. "You know that it wasn't really like a feasible option, right?"

He watched Danny out of the corner of his eye, but given that the half ghost hadn't turned invisible or slipped out through a wall yet, he figured he wasn't pushing too far yet.

"Like... you'd have to have perfect math scores and science scores and stuff. And I know those aren't the classes you're failing but I'm pretty sure you're not acing them either. Not that it's your fault," he added quickly. "It's the stupid ghosts."

And it was. Sure, they'd done some stupid stuff over the years, but everything that really hurt them could be traced back to the ghosts or Danny's ghostly powers acting up before he'd learned how to control them. None of which was actually his fault. And it wasn't fair that he had to keep paying for it.

Tucker set his PDA down and leaned forward in his chair, staring down determinedly at his hands clasped in front of him. "And your life would have been a gazillion times better if you didn't have to deal with them all the time," he said. "And I'm... I'm really sorry we went in the lab that day," he admitted, not noticing how Danny sat up straight. "And that we asked you to show us the portal and check it out and stuff. That was stupid. And I..."

"No, Tuck," Danny protested fiercely. "That wasn't your fault, okay?" He slumped as he continued, "It was my fault for not watching where I was going. And I knew better than to be in there anyway. I just..." he sighed.

"I know that it wasn't going to happen, okay? It was like a .6% chance to begin with and that dropped to zero after the accident. I knew it then too... I. I knew it wasn't going to happen. Wasn't really possible. Not for me. And I..." his knuckles turned white as he bunched up his sheets in his hands. "I accepted that. Or... at least I kinda did. I mean I kept the posters up and stuff but that was mostly just because I love space, you know? And that didn't change. Never has. Never will," he laughed mirthlessly before abruptly cutting off the sound when it started veering toward a sob.

"I just left them up because... because it was always what I'd wanted and I'd dreamed about becoming an astronaut since I was just a little kid and I didn't want to let that go. You know?" He rubbed the back of his neck.

"Like, I knew it wasn't going to happen but I liked it still existing as a possibility in case something really crazy happened and they... needed a half ghost to go into space as a NASA ambassador, you know?" he admitted with a self conscious laugh. "And I just... now it's not possible. For me or anybody. But I just..." he moved his hands up and down, taking the sheets with them. "I just always thought it would be there, you know? People always going to the moon and the stars and further and further and finding new planets and asteroids and I just... wanted that to be there. Even if I couldn't be the one to do it."

He paused, trying to keep his building emotions in check, and rubbed his forehead with one hand. "I don't, aha, I don't know this is a big deal for me. Kinda stupid really, because I know it doesn't even affect me. I just..."

"Nah, I get it, man," Tucker said as Danny trailed off. "But you still know more about space than anyone I know and you know I know some pretty big geeks."

Danny snorted.

"And you know what else?"

Danny chewed his lip for a minute. Then, "What?" he finally asked his bedspread.

"I've never known anyone else who's been up in space."

Danny looked up at him quickly.

"Well, okay, just you and this girl I dated for a little bit," he allowed with tilt of his head and a twinkle in his eye. Leaning forward, he grew serious again, "But you didn't need NASA for that, man. You may not have been like an official guy in their program but you... were in freaking space, Danny!" He paused to let particular little fact sink in. "You were up there in your suit flying around in a vacuum between the stars and looking back at earth and... if that doesn't make you an astronaut, I honestly don't know what does."

Danny gaped at him, throat too closed up to respond.

Tucker looked away, letting Danny compose himself for a minute.

"So who cares if they stopped their astronaut program, huh?" Tucker continued. "You never do things the normal way anyway," he laughed. "I bet you'll be back up in space again anyway," he said.

Danny smiled shakily. "You think so?"

"Sure," Tucker agreed easily. "Plus, you really thing they're going to be able to keep this up forever? Nah," he answered himself with a wave of his hand, "they're going to need to put people back up in space sometime and then they'll have to build their program from scratch. No one's going to have proper astronaut training. And you'll be there first in line," he predicted. "With more experience than anyone on the planet."

Danny thought about it for a moment, trying to make himself believe that his friend was right, that there wasn't reason to completely give up hope yet. He could still be an astronaut. Heck, he was one already!

"So," Tucker broke into his thoughts once he was smiling. Danny looked up. "You up for a milkshake now? I'm hungry."

Danny laughed and quickly dabbed his eyes with the hem of his shirt before hopping off the bed and grabbing his wallet off the nightstand. He picked his NASA poster up off the floor and laid it on the bed on his way around to the other side of the room.

"Yeah, let's go," he said, joining Tucker at the door. "And Tuck?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks," Danny said simply.

Tucker smiled. Mission accomplished. "No problem."

He was quiet for a moment and then, as they started going down the stairs, he added, "You're totally paying for my milkshake, by the way."

When Danny heaved sideways and shoved him into the stairway railing, he didn't even mind, just started the race to the bottom of the stairs and out the door, even though he knew they'd both be winded long before they got to the Nasty Burger.


End file.
